Friday, May 29, 2015

I love when a spot of happiness emerges from the chaos that is home. Today it is the middle of our kitchen table. A vase filled with fragrant Wintersweet, a homemade candle and an enamel bowl of polyanthus.

Yesterday's spot was the couch where I had a very special skype appointment. Putting a little bit of time into getting water in a nice carafe, a favourite glass and as many blankets as I might need made all the difference.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Even though the colours I use may look as though I have blindly chosen them from a bag full of yarn, I am actually very fussy about my choices. And if I get a 'not quite right' combination, it can drive me up the wall. I found my self in this situation last night, feeling that the red was a bit too sharp for the blanket. After a while of humphing, I decided that rather than tear back all of the rounds until I reached the 'splinter', I would soften it by working over the 2 rounds with a pale green pompom trim (from here-although I slightly modified the pattern so that it would sit flat).

I am sooooo happy with it and now feel that I should do a few more pompom rounds. It kind of reminds me of a chenille bedspread. It makes me wonder what other mistakes in my life I can cover with pompoms....

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Archie had to do some cooking for his class last night so decided to make coconut ice. The recipe called for copha which is a hydrogenated vegetable fat... something I really didn't want to buy. So we thought we would try using coconut oil instead. Oh my giddy aunt - it was so much better that I thought we should share the recipe!

Melt the coconut oil and then mix with the dessicated coconut, icing sugar, vanilla extract and egg whites. Divide the mixture in half and mix the natural food colouring through one batch. Spread one half in a 20x20cm square cake tin then spread the other half on top. Refrigerate until cold and then cut into pieces. TRY NOT TO EAT TOO MUCH!!!

Monday, May 18, 2015

The printer deadline for the book is looming so while I am keeping very busy with that for most of the time, there are still odd quiet moments when I can do very non-booky things. This little spotted guinea tailed squirrel is an example of a stolen few minutes here and there spent with Gypsona plaster bandages. So much fun.

And of course, who wouldn't want to spare another ten minutes experimenting with tulle and glitter.

I hope you are managing to find the odd minute of creative freedom here and there. Sometimes it's good to remember that regular snippets of time add up!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Last night we had a shuffle around of furniture. This means that some parts of the living room are pristine with freshly hung paintings and other parts are teeming with piles of unbelongings. Unbelongings are very important things waiting to have a home allocated - clutter needs to be kicked out of cupboards to make way for them.

I am still going through all of the patterns for the book, retesting again and again. Here is a mountain that is usually quite big but I made it from 4ply last night and now it is little.

A corner of happiness. The photo on the right is my wedding day - I was greedy for colour even back then.... almost 14 years ago....

Sunday, May 3, 2015

I am making very slow progress with this new caravan. I think it might be because the boys have only just gone back to school and and the week has been inundated with school excursions and 12 year old boys staying over, basketball, etc. This week is going to be the week of furiously happy crochet. It has been decided.

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About Me

I am an Australian living in New Zealand with my husband Jonno and children Archie and Hugo on a harbourside dairy farm. My great aunt and uncle taught me to embroider when I was eight and I have been obsessed with fabric and thread ever since. I now crochet, knit, paint, sew, print fabric, embroider, write and all sorts of other things that raises seratonin. I am also lucky enough to design projects for Simply Crochet UK . Thanks for stopping by!